


your tide rushes over me

by sleepinnude



Category: Glee
Genre: Blam, Imaginary Friends, Kid Fic, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 19:04:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepinnude/pseuds/sleepinnude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam remembers. He met his best friend when he was five. He just had no clue how that would all end up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	your tide rushes over me

When Sam was five, he met his best friend.

The first thing he noticed about Blaine was opposites. Because that’s what he had been learning about in kindergarten that week. Opposites. Like that he had yellow hair (blonde, Miss Chrissy told him and tow-head is what his Pap called it) and Blaine had dark, dark hair. Like that his eyes were the color of blue jeans right before his Momma made him throw them out because they were too worn and Blaine’s were the color of French Toast when Daddy made it (Momma always left it too yellow and squishy). Like how he still had to use the step stool to wash his hands before snack time but Blaine could already reach the taps.

He spent hours on end with Blaine. Every spare moment he could find was filled with Blaine. They were explorers and adventurers and gods and firemen and spacemen (They’re called astronauts, Sammy) and race-car drivers and a Indiana Joneses and Supermen. Blaine loved turning somersaults and jumping Sam into enthusiastic hugs and spreading out in the sun for long hours. Sam loved building with blocks and sand and climbing trees and making forts and rolling down hills.

They loved each other without complication. Sam’s joy was Blaine’s laughter and Blaine’s pain was Sam’s tears. Blaine fell asleep with his head on Sam’s stomach and Sam rested his head on Blaine’s shoulder, watching mesmerized as Blaine read Dr. Seuss and comic books.

Sam would slam into the house and track mud and his Momma would holler and his Daddy would catch him against his chest. And when they asked where he had been all day, Sam would grin wide open and reply, “With Blaine!” Momma and Daddy would smile at each other in a way Sam couldn’t understand and then Daddy would ruffle his hair and Momma would tell him to get washed up for supper.

Momma asked all kinds of questions about Blaine when Sam sat at the table with his lunch, unlaced sneakers knocking against the rungs of the chair. Momma always asked the best kind of questions, one that made Sam think. She asked what Blaine’s laugh sounded like and what color socks he wore and whether he liked aliens from Mars or Jupiter better and which Power Ranger he was. Sam fired back answers easily (Like eating a peanut-butter-banana sandwich with the crusts cut off. Usually navy with the grey toes but sometimes with red and sometimes with dinosaurs. Jupiter because duh, Momma, aliens from Mars were mean. The blue one.)

And sometimes Momma found him crying into his pillow and she fit her fingers into his hair and asked What’s wrong, baby? And Sam hiccuped and sniffled and hid his face in her collar and told her in wet stutters that he and Blaine got in a fight. And Momma would purse her lips like when she was worried and thumb over his cheeks and tell him that it’s okay, real friends can always forgive each other and make up after fights. And then a little after she left Blaine would appear in his doorway and he’d edge over to his bed and Sam wouldn’t be able to wait for a hug. And they would hug and hug, tight, tight, and Blaine would do that thing to fit his face up under Sam’s chin and they’d hug some more and Blaine would apologize and so would Sam and then a few minutes later he’d be slamming out of the house, calling over his shoulder to his Momma, I’m going to play with Blaine! I’ll be back for dinner!

His Momma was a smart lady.

He and Blaine grew apart. Blaine didn’t go to his school and as they got older it got harder for them to see each other. Real school meant real reading and writing and that gave Sam some trouble and made him frustrated. Blaine came by sometimes and tried to help. He sat with Sam for long hours of struggling through homework and gave him hugs and did anything he could think of to make Sam laugh after a rough day. 

It was on one of those days that they vowed to be best friends forever, sealing the promise with their secret handshake.

Pinkies locking over thumbs and spitting on palms wasn’t enough to save them. Sam hardly ever saw Blaine. Third and fourth grade whizzed by in a blur of superheroes, multiplication tables and the never-ending battle that is cursive handwriting. Just before fifth grade Sam learned that he’s going to be a big brother. Blaine came over later that day and though it had been a while it was like they never spent a day apart all over again. Blaine spent the night and they stretched out on Sam’s bed, arms folded under their heads, and they talked. Then Stevie was born and Sam mentioned hanging out with Blaine at the dinner table.

Momma got upset and Daddy just stared at him. 

That summer his parents asked him if he’d like to go to a new school, a boarding school. Sam was going to be a seventh grader and the idea of it sounded interesting. He was going to have a baby sister soon and Stevie had just started running around and Sam was trying to get him to learn his name. But the prospect of a boarding school sounded interesting and fun and exciting. It’d be all-boys but that was cool because Sam’s best friend was a boy so he figured he won’t really miss girls. But his best friend was also Blaine and he knew he’d really miss Blaine. 

He and Blaine climbed the tree in Sam’s back yard that night and searched the sky for constellations. Sam stammered out his news and also his question, looking at his lap, fingers hooking into one another. Blaine listened patiently and, after a long pass of silence, caught one of Sam’s hands in his own. I can’t, Sammy. You know that. And Sammy had known that, had known it as soon as the idea had occurred to him. But he had to try and ask anyway. Blaine laughed and flicked Sam’s nose and joked about how much taller Sam was than him now because he knew it would make Sam laugh.

The next afternoon he told his parents that he didn’t want to go to the new school because Blaine wouldn’t be able to go and Blaine was his best friend.

They both got really quiet and then Dad put a hand to his shoulder and said that they had to “talk” about something. Sam’s throat sunk to his stomach and his head spun because he knew this could only be bad. His Momma cupped his face and thumbed over his cheeks like when he and Blaine used to get into fights and she told him that Blaine wasn’t real. Blaine was just an imaginary friend. You know that, don’t you, Sammy? You know that you made Blaine up?

Sam just met her eyes and the gears in his heart ground together because something in him knew but not enough of something and it hurt either way. His chin trembled in her palm and he stammers. But… But… But… But Blaine’s my friend! He’s my best friend! And his Dad sighed and nodded and ruffled his hair and rubbed his back and told him that he knew. I know, Sammy, I know. I know he is. But it’s time you made some real friends, hmm? Blaine’ll… Blaine’ll always be around if you need him. Why don’t we try the new school out and find you some new friends?

He and Blaine lay awake together the night before he moved in to his new school. They didn’t say anything.

Sam made friends. Sam made friends and played football and baseball and got better at reading and learned about Dyslexia, Sam. It’s why you have trouble with reading. He learned that he loves math and science and especially astronomy. He learned that he could make his new friends laugh with his impressions and that there are even a few of them who loved Star Wars and comics just as much as he did. He got demerits for pranks and had inside jokes and when he got home on some weekends and for holidays he taught Stacey to say his name.

The summer after sophomore year Stevie couldn’t stop babbling about his friend Mark and his parents would grin at each other in a way that struck a chord in Sam. Momma asked what Mark’s laugh sounds like and Stevie thought for a long moment before answering Like the dizzy moment after you finish a somersault! and his mother sent him a secret smile over Stacey’s pigtailed head. His imaginary friend, she mouthed. Dad looked uncomfortable and shifted.

Sam dreamed about a dark head of curly hair and warm golden eyes and opposites that night.

The family moved again. They moved out of Tennessee, north to Ohio, and Sam had something like a panic attack over it. Lemon juice and sun colored his hair that summer and his Momma laughed at him. She ruffled his hair and Dad gave his shoulder a shove with a bright grin.

McKinley High was hard. Sam sang and got on the football team and dislocated his shoulder and sang again. He made friends and learned when to shut his mouth and had to take his shirt off a whole lot. He went on a date with the most beautiful girl in the school and didn’t sing a duet with a boy with beautiful eyes. 

He fit in.

And one day, in the middle the McKinley cafeteria, while grinning at the coy eyes Quinn was passing to him over her salad, Sam caught sight of a dark head of curls and warm golden eyes. A boy moving with confidence in a private school uniform and tilting his head in to that boy with beautiful eyes.

Kurt introduced him later as Blaine. Sam had a black eye and a girlfriend and his heart in his throat as he shook Blaine’s hand.

Blaine met his eyes and grinned and apologized, Didn’t catch your name, sorry?

Blaine laughed later and Sam heart breaks because Like eating a peanut-butter-banana sandwich with the crusts cut off, Momma!


End file.
